Travel Diary

Getting up early seemed fairly easy. Almost too easy. Was I still on California time? Around 8am, we got cappuccinos and pastries from a nearby shop. The day would start with breakfast at the flat and then a walk around the town for a turn. One stop would be an ATM. Got to have money. Vendors like that.

We took a fun walk to visit the Secret Swimming Hole. Well, it’s mainly a lagoon that not many people know about, or at least not too many visit. I may be the only person giving it this title.

The walk to get there was along the streets heading west or south. Could never really tell. The streets climbed hills quite frequently and often offered zero sidewalk space. Plus, the sides of the road are often walls there. One just hugs the wall closely and hopes for the best when cars zip by.

After surviving the walk over, we descended several hundred feet on a path. Again, tall stone walls stood to either side of the path. At the bottom, the path opened to a sea cliff paths. Following a path over the cliff rocks, we arrived at an amazing view of the Mediterranean Sea. Might have been my first time seeing it on the ground. Out in the water, people were swimming about. And on some tall rocks far out in the water, people were leaping off them into the sea (hopefully not on other rocks).

I, of course, had to swim. The water temperature was great. Not cold, though not warm either. Just right for swimming. Getting out and in from the water was tricky. The craggy rocks were not exactly kind to bare feet.

Swim being done, we hiked over to another part of the cliffs: the secret swimming hole! One hikes around the top of the area until reaching steep steps heading down into the entry point. There were about 20 people inside, swimming or lying about. One could swim in the lagoon and then go through a tunnel in the rock and enter the open sea--which was fun, though a little concerning to be outside of the safe lagoon. There were far fewer people on the outside area, which explains while a few were using the private (well less populated) space for some nude sunbathing. (Hopefully, they used enough sunscreen.)

After the lagoon, we returned to the main swimming area. I swam some more, but being nervous about the bags was always a strong concern. We always had someone watching them though. And I doubt many people came this far out to steal. It would be a very slow escape at that.

The cliff-divers were gone now. It was tempting to try it out, but again, I have to really have a guarantee that there are no rocks or barriers under the water to try anything like that. And without goggles, there was no way to check. I just stuck with swimming around and enjoying the sea.

The sharp rocks under the water were a pain though--literally. I received a small cut while climbing out of the water.

We packed up and returned to the flat. One mission was to check out the bike shop, but it was closed. When it finally opened, we rented some ebikes. These were not terribly fast, but still helped one pedal faster than normal (with the weight of the motor and battery offsetting some of the gains).

Around the city, one had to bike fairly fast to avoid slowing down traffic. And the hills made this challenging. But it was doable. We had only an hour to ride around (for about five euros). One destination was an ATM visit across town. Then we returned, and with about 10 minutes to spare, we biked around the side streets with the tall stone walls, which offered some great views of the sea. After that, we returned the bikes and got some good sunset photos. Another cool thing about Sorrento.

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